The present invention relates to cooling techniques and data processing techniques, particularly to techniques effectively applied to forced cooling or the like for small-sized and highly-integrated data processing apparatus such as servers or for general electronic devices.
A forced cooling technique using fans are general as a cooling system for electronic devices. In the technique, a case of using a multi-blade fan excellent in static pressure property becomes increased in order to cope with reduction of suction and exhaust areas attendant upon improvement of packaging density of components and reduction in size of electronic device casing.
In the case that the heat generation rate of an electronic device is high, it is required for enhancing the cooling ability to dispose a plurality of multi-blade fans in parallel.
However, since a multi-blade fan takes the air in from a direction of the rotational axis of rotary blades and blows it to a peripheral direction, when a plurality of multi-blade fans are disposed in parallel, it is required to make the distance between the neighboring fans large in order to ensure the suction area of each multi-blade fan. As a result, there is a technical problem that the mounting space in the axial direction of the multi-blade fans becomes large.
As a conventional cooling technique for an electronic device, for example, JP-A-5-21978 describes a technique in which there is provided two fans for a current using system and a standby system and a power supply device portion so as to avoid the operation stop of the electronic device due to the trouble of the cooling fan by operating the standby fan when the current using fan gets out of order.
However, in the technique disclosed by JP-A-5-21978, any attention is not paid for reducing the mounting space in the case of mounting a plurality of multi-blade fans or the like.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cooling technique capable of enhancing the cooling ability by concentrated disposition of a plurality of multi-blade fans in a smaller disposition space.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cooling technique capable of suppressing considerable reduction of the cooling ability due to stop of a specific multi-blade fan in a concentrated disposition construction of a plurality of multi-blade fans which are operated always.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cooling technique capable of exchanging an arbitrary multi-blade fan in a cooling apparatus comprising a plurality of multi-blade fans without stopping the operation of the cooling apparatus and without considerably reducing the cooling ability.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cooling technique capable of exchanging an arbitrary multi-blade fan in a cooling apparatus comprising a plurality of multi-blade fans irrespective of disposition posture of the cooling apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data processing apparatus capable of realizing reduction in size of the whole casing including a cooling apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data processing apparatus capable of continuously operating irrespective of maintenance work for a cooling apparatus.
According to the present invention, there is provided a cooling method comprising the steps of disposing a plurality of multi-blade fans in parallel so that a suction opening of each multi-blade fan is alternately arranged with respect to the suction opening of the next multi-blade fan; connecting an exhaust opening of each multi-blade fan to a partition wall for dividing a suction side of the multi-blade fans from an exhaust side thereof; and operating all the multi-blade fans always.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus of the comprising a plurality of multi-blade fans disposed in parallel so that a suction opening of each multi-blade fan is alternately arranged with respect to the suction opening of the next multi-blade fan, all the multi-blade fans being operated always; and a partition wall dividing a suction side of the multi-blade fan from an exhaust side thereof.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus comprising a fan box having a plurality of suction opening portions and exhaust opening portions which are opened in a suction main surface and an exhaust main surface respectively, the surfaces being opposite to each other; and a first fan unit and a second fan units, each unit comprising a multi-blade fan always operated and a suction duct communicating a suction opening of the multi-blade fan of the next fan unit with the suction opening portion of the fan unit, the multi-blade fan and the suction duct being disposed in different positions respectively in an inserting direction of the units with respect to the fan box, wherein an exhaust opening of the multi-blade fan is connected to the exhaust opening portion.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing apparatus comprising a first casing; at least an external storage unit and a power supply unit mounted within the first casing; and a cooling apparatus mounted within the first casing, comprising a plurality of multi-blade fans disposed in parallel so that a suction opening of each multi-blade fan is alternately arranged with respect to the suction opening of the next multi-blade fan, all the multi-blade fans being operated always, and a partition wall dividing a suction side of the multi-blade fan from an exhaust side thereof.
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing apparatus comprising a first casing; at least an external storage unit and a power supply unit mounted within the first casing; and a cooling apparatus mounted within the first casing, comprising a fan box having a plurality of suction opening portions and exhaust opening portions which are opened in a suction main surface and an exhaust main surface respectively, the surfaces being opposite to each other, and a first fan unit and a second fan units, each unit comprising a multi-blade fan always operated and a suction duct communicating a suction opening of the multi-blade fan of the next fan unit with the suction opening portion of the fan unit, the multi-blade fan and the suction duct being disposed in different positions respectively in an inserting direction of the units with respect to the fan box, wherein an exhaust opening of the multi-blade fan is connected to the exhaust opening portion.